According to Activision publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, multiplayer is a part of the Call of Duty package, and the publisher will never charge extra for it.
Speaking to IndustryGamers, Hirshberg had the following to say:
“Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no,” said Hirshberg. “The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience and we’ll never charge for that. It’s not going to be something we’ll attempt to monetise; it’s part of the package.”
“Nothing we or anyone else tries is going to work if it doesn’t have tremendous value for people and add a tremendous value to the gaming experience. [Pachter] is probably looking at meta-trends in the world and in culture about online services and new ways things should be monetised from Netflix to cloud-based computing.”
Finishing firmly, Hirchnberg concluded, “all I’m trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer.”